Cruz critics wary of his gavel on NASA and climate change panel

WASHINGTON - With the GOP's Senate takeover, Texas Republican Ted Cruz said Monday he is "looking forward" to taking charge of the panel that oversees NASA and science, setting up potential clashes with critics who have cast him as a budget-cutting, climate-change "denier."

Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, has battled Senate Democrats over NASA funding in the past. He also has expressed deep skepticism of global warming, arguing that the theory is not supported by the record of global temperatures over the past 15 years.

Environmentalists have raised the alarm in recent weeks about the outspoken conservative's pending chairmanship of the Senate subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness. Along with NASA's space mission, the agency conducts global climate research, which has become the focus of attacks by many Republicans in Congress.

Cruz signaled Monday that he intends to steer the space agency's priorities back to what he called its "core mission," reversing Obama administration policies that he says diverted funds into climate change research.

"One of the problems with the Obama administration is that it has degraded our ability for space exploration," Cruz said. "It has degraded manned exploration, because the Obama administration has undervalued that and shifted the funding to other priorities. It has shifted the funding to global warming pursuits, rather than carrying out NASA's core mission."

In response to questions from the Houston Chronicle during a Heritage Foundation policy summit, Cruz also dismissed critics who have labeled him a climate change "denier."

"It is a dangerous thing when those purporting to talk about science speak in the language of theology," Cruz said. "I am the child of two mathematicians and scientists. And I believe science should be dictated by data and evidence.

"The word 'denial' is typically applied in religious contexts to heretics," Cruz continued. "The facts matter, and what has happened in the global warming debate is that there are advocates of government power who refuse to engage in the facts."

Cruz's outspoken skepticism of global warming, which many scientists and environmentalists consider settled, could make him a new lightning rod for critics in a political debate that carries weighty policy implications for the environment.

"The American people are best served when a committee is led by someone who believes in the mission of the committee," said Al Armendariz, a former Environmental Protection Agency official who now works for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. "Unfortunately, Sen. Cruz has a history of denying the scientific consensus on climate and taking the side of polluters instead of moving ahead with good policy."

Environmentalists also worry the committee will give Cruz a new platform in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign.

"It's a concern," said Keith Gaby, communications director for the Environmental Defense Fund's climate program. "Sen. Cruz has played to the most extreme elements of his party on climate. NASA is a dispassionate, nonpartisan source of data on climate. It would be incredibly damaging if he decides to go on an ideological crusade against it."

GOP leaders named Cruz to lead the Space and Science Committee last week, but the appointment is expected to be confirmed later this month.

Cruz's views on NASA and climate change research are not out of line with those of many House Republicans, including San Antonio Republican Lamar Smith, chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Smith, in a recent interview, also vowed to shift NASA's focus toward space exploration and away from climate research, which he says can be funded through other federal agencies. Smith, along with a host of other House Republicans, has accused the administration of shortchanging two major initiatives for returning astronauts to space from American soil: the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft.

Whether NASA's research capabilities can be replicated by other government agencies is a question that may soon be tested.

"It's crucially important in the world effort to understand climate change," said Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University. "What's irreplaceable are the satellites, people all over the world use NASA data for weather forecasts and to test their climate models."

As Cruz has made a name for himself nationally as a tea party critic of government spending and Obama's health care law, his views on NASA and space exploration are not well known.

George Abbey, a senior fellow in space policy at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and a former director of Johnson Space Center, said that until now Cruz has shown little overt interest in NASA or human spaceflight.

"It remains to be seen if his serving as the new chairman will make any difference to NASA in general and JSC in particular," Abbey said. "Senator Cruz has served as a member of the subcommittee since his election to the Senate and he has been focused on reducing government spending."

Cruz sought to reduce NASA spending during a spending battle in July 2013, arguing that the higher amount sought by Democrats exceeded the sequestration levels set under a previous bipartisan budget agreement. Cruz's effort was turned back along party lines in what was then a Space and Science Committee run by Democrats.

On Monday, Cruz vowed to be a champion of NASA, a large employer in his native Houston. Another strong House backer in Congress is expected to be freshman Texas Republican Brian Babin. Although he is a committed budget hawk, Babin's district covers the Johnson Space Center, and he won the high-profile endorsement of former Apollo 13 flight director Gene Kranz.

"NASA is a critically important agency," Cruz said. "Texas has a strong interest in space and space exploration. It excites the imagination … NASA's core mission is to engage in space exploration, and I'm looking forward to chairing the science and space committee and focusing on the core mission of NASA again."

Kevin Diaz came to the Houston Chronicle in February 2014 with more than a decade of experience covering Washington. Before that, he was the chief Washington correspondent for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he got his start in journalism in 1984 as a night cops reporter. During his tenure in Minneapolis, he won awards for his coverage of gang crime and city hall. He also taught public affairs reporting at the University of Minnesota, where he received his Master’s. After a stint at the Washington (D.C.) City Paper, Kevin went back to the Star Tribune, where he won national awards for articles on globalization and immigration. He also covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks from Washington and New York. Born and raised in Italy, Kevin has reported from Italy, Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba, where he covered Jesse Ventura’s 2002 trade mission. In 2003, he filed daily Iraq War dispatches for McClatchy Newspapers from the U.S. Central Command in Qatar. In 2006, he covered the presidential election standoff in Mexico. He also has covered Washington for the Anchorage Daily News and the Idaho Statesman.